(1) Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to classification of a cut of meat based on the thickness of the layer of fat on the meat and, more particularly, to determining the thickness of the layer of fat on a meat cut and providing the thickness information to a downstream fat trimming operation.
(2) Background Art
During production processing of animal carcasses, the carcass is separated or disassembled down to its primal and sub primal cuts of meat. Many of these cuts of meat have undesirable layers of fat attached to the lean portion of the meat cut. It is typical during the dressing of a meat cut to trim away the undesirable layer of fat. This fat trimming operation is particularly common during the production processing of a pork carcass when dressing the loin portion sub primal cut of the pork carcass. The pork carcass, as with other animal carcasses, is typically separated down the back bone into two halves and then disassembled to its primal and sub primal meat cuts such as the loin portion. The loin portion of the carcass comprises a portion of the back bone, ribs, meat or lean, and an outer layer of fat. This outer layer of fat is typically separated from the meat or lean portion of the loin.
This trimming operation can of course be performed by a person utilizing a knife. However, a person utilizing a knife has difficulty in discerning the thickness of the fat layer in order to efficiently and effectively trim the fat from the cut of meat. To solve this problem automated machines or sensors have been developed for measuring the thickness of the fat layer and this measured thickness data can be provided to an automated fat trimming system for performing a subsequent fat trimming operation. The process of measuring or sensing the fat thickness for subsequent fat trimming is clearly disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,269 issued Dec. 25, 1990 to Norrie and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,277,019 issued Aug. 21 2001 to Veldkamp et al.
It is clear from Norrie and Veldkamp that there are various methods to sense or determine the thickness of the layer of fat on a meat cut such as capturing an image of the cut of meat with a camera or other image capturing device from a perspective where the thickness can be discerned and analyzing the image. Another common and possibly more effective method is to penetrate the meat cut with a probe operable to sense the fat thickness as the meat cut travels along a conveyor. However, in order to physically penetrate the meat cut with a probe as it is being conveyed, typically the conveyor stops or indexes while the probe is being inserted. This stopping or indexing action performed in order to probe each meat cut slows down the operation to an unacceptable pace. It is desirable to be able to probe the meat cut as it is being continuously conveyed without indexing or stopping the meat cut item. The present invention addresses this problem as well as other problems.